Game of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau: I Love the CrossFit Games But Am Worried Everyone's Doping

You know Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau best as the handsome, one-handed, sister-shagging Jaime Lannister on Game of Thrones. It's a part Coster-Waldau plays perfectly, and GoT fans are anxious as hell to learn what Lannister's fate shall be when the 7th season concludes this Sunday night on HBO. But Coster-Waldau's already thinking about his next project, a new prison drama called Shot Caller where he plays jacked prisoner Money. We sat down with Coster-Waldau to talk about his workout routine for Shot Caller, how the Game of Thrones cast says goodbye to a fellow actor who's character has been killed off, and why he loathes Navy SEAL burpees.

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Men's Health: The first image I saw from Shot Caller was you shirtless, very ripped. What was your workout like for that?

Coster-Waldau: I tried to work out how the prisoners did, so a lot of pullups. The worst move was the Navy SEAL burpee. It’s a burpee and then it’s three pushups where every pushup you take the knee up to one elbow, and then you go back up. I did 50 once when I was in really good shape, and it almost killed me because that’s 50 burpees and 150 pushups in one go. It’s a lot. So, I tried to do all those things, and then, on top of that, a lot of weights because I had to bulk up. And a lot of eating. A lot of eating.

So you didn’t really go for a prison workout.

The things we did in the movie would be like the Navy SEALS burpee. That was one we used a lot. The pullups—we did a lot of pullups. Regular pushups. We did a ton of basic bodyweight stuff. But then on top of that, in the gym I would try to bulk up so I’d do a lot of deadlifting, a lot of squatting, a lot of those things. I wouldn’t squat with anyone on top of me. I would just do that with weights.

Was that really you squatting Ripper [Keith Jardine’s character in Shot Caller]?

Yeah, that was me. He’s a big guy. I tried to re-do it the other day on The Late Late Show [with James Corden] with Lin-Manuel [Miranda]. It felt like a good idea at the time and then I was like, “Holy shit, he was heavier than I thought." I did do a very deep squat though. I went a little too deep, I think. [Laughs] Well, I did it the right way, but yeah.

How would you compare your workouts for preparing to play Money to playing Jaime Lannister?

The difference is that I was bulking up for Money. So I was trying to put on muscle, and Jaime doesn’t have a specific workout; it’s just my every day, just trying to stay fit workout. For Money, I was trying to get bigger more than anything, and I have no interest in that on a regular basis. And I didn’t do much cardio. Usually, I spend a lot of time on the bike—I like to mountain bike.

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Sword Fighting with 'Jaime Lannister':

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People assume that if you’re rich and famous that it’s easier to work out and stay fit. Would you agree with that? Disagree?

I don’t think that should change anything. What’s the idea?

You would be able to afford personal trainers, better equipment, things like that.

Ah. I do remember once I did an article about mountain biking and they had a picture of me and a bike, and the bike wasn’t mine. It was a beautiful, expensive bike, and then someone was reading and said, “Yeah, that's typical. So easy for you rich guys to go mountain biking. I can’t afford a bike like that.” And I’m like, “What the fuck?” Just get a bicycle. My actual bike at the time was not as expensive. Working out is not about whether the weights are expensive or the bike is expensive—it’s about doing it. It’s a complete misconception. I don’t have a personal trainer. I work out with a good buddy, and we go to a CrossFit gym close to where I live, and then you do the work. There is no shortcut.

You’re into CrossFit?

Yeah.

Did you watch the 2017 Games?

No, but I saw the 2016 games, and I loved it. I love CrossFit, but it’s just fear now that suddenly the first big doping scandal is going to hit. You just know it’s going to come because it’s just happening too fast. They’re getting too big. The jumps are so extreme now. Now it [doping] is clearly a part of CrossFit, and it shouldn’t be, I think. Because everyone works so hard. They’re all at the very top. I mean, I don’t know. I love CrossFit. I love it as a sport. I love to workout. What I love more than anything about it is that unlike going to a regular gym, I love the atmosphere in the CrossFit gyms, and I’ve been going to CrossFit gyms in Denmark, of course, in the US, and I’ve been to a couple in Spain when doing Game of Thrones, and what I like about it is there is a sense of comradery. It’s not so vain. Everyone’s vain, but it hasn’t got that whole “wall of mirrors” when you walk in as if you have to stand there just eye-masturbating, or whatever you call it [Laughs]. But you know what I mean? I like that atmosphere of having fun together instead of it just being about me and my pecs. And also I finally can do a muscle-up in the rings and it’s taken me years to get to that so now I am just fine. I’m just so happy.

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Spoiler alert, but in Shot Caller there’s this really heart wrenching scene where you come face to face with your son again after being gone so long.

Yes, that’s one of the key scenes in the movie.

That just reminded me of last week’s episode of Game of Thrones when you’re blindsided by Tyrion coming out of the blue. You have this deep love for this long-lost family member, but you can’t express that because of the circumstances. Is there anything you drew from your own life experience for that?

I think everything is drawn from your own life experiences to a certain point. I haven’t had anything similar. That scene in Shot Caller with his son is crucial because it’s the moment because Money is so closed up emotionally. He’s made himself so hard, and then when he sees his son, you see the cracks. With Jaime and Tyrion, he cracks up, but he has to stay angry because this is the guy who killed his father, but he’s also the guy who’s the main advisor to the woman who just murdered thousands and thousands of their soldiers, and it was the biggest threat to King’s Landing, so even if he loves his brother, it’s a situation where he can’t afford to entertain those feelings.

When someone dies on Game of Thrones, how do you guys send off the actor who played him or her?

“Bye!” [Laughs]

That's it? No send-off dinner?

There have been some dinners, but when you follow a show and you love the characters and they die, it becomes a big deal because you’ve invested in these people. When you work on something, and especially as an actor, and especially when you’ve done this for as long as Diana [Rigg] has, that’s just the nature of what you do. You do a job and then it ends and then you do another job. Yeah, it can be sad if you’ve had a great relationship, but you’ll meet again later on. There’s not much emotional drama, to be honest.

Are your friends always pestering you for spoilers?

No. You always stress, “Do you really want to know,” and they usually go, “No, no.” This whole leak thing is just boring. I think 99.9 percent of people don’t want to know. They just want to wait and watch the show when it comes out and then there’s that .1 percent that’ll check it out but a lot of them will also watch it when it comes out.

Are you guys filming again? Because I know you’re doing Brian De Palma’s new film Domino.

I’m going to finish the Brian De Palma project. We’ve got another few days next week, and then in October it’s back to Thrones.

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